SAUTÉED STUFFED CUTLETS

CUTLETS THAT ARE STUFFED AND BREADED ARE special-occasion food. The filling coats the chicken from the inside with a creamy sauce, while the crust makes a crunchy counterpoint. They can be very good, but these little bundles pose a number of problems for the cook. The filling must be creamy without being runny; flavorful but not so strong that it overpowers the chicken. The crust must be crisp all over, without burnt spots, and it must completely seal in the filling so that none leaks out.

We first focused on the cooking method. We needed to develop a technique that would crisp the exterior without overbrowning it before the center was fully cooked. Deep frying was the obvious answer, but this option is really better suited to restaurants than home kitchens. We tested roasting, broiling, sautéing, and combinations of these methods. We found that two approaches warranted further exploration: (1) complete cooking in a skillet on the stovetop and (2) stovetop browning followed by roasting.

We ran our next test on the stove, sautéing the breasts in just enough vegetable oil to generously coat the bottom of a sauté pan. This test revealed a number of problems. First, it was difficult to arrive at a heat level that would cook the chicken through without burning it. Also, the cutlets often stuck to the pan. Furthermore, even though the breasts in the pan at any one time were of only slightly different weights, their rates of cooking were different enough to be a problem.

It seemed logical that the two-step method—a preliminary pan-frying on top of the stove, followed by roasting in the even heat of the oven—would solve the twin problems of overbrowning and undercooking. We sautéed the next batch in oil that came one-third to halfway up the sides of the chicken, cooking until the chicken was well-browned all over. Then, to combat the sogginess we had observed in roasted breasts during the initial round of testing, we baked the chicken on a rack in a jelly roll pan so that hot air could circulate underneath the breasts.

The results were much improved: the breasts didn't stick to the pan; they came out of the oven evenly browned, with an excellent, crunchy coating; and the meat inside was not soggy but instead almost uniformly moist, with only the skinny tips of the breasts slightly dry. Because the time in the oven didn't significantly darken the crust, we could rely on this method for a perfect crust every time as long as we carefully supervised the stovetop browning.

Next we had to figure out what ingredients to use in the crust. We found that a classic a l'anglaise breading (dipping the cutlets in flour, then in eggs beaten with a little oil and water, and finally in bread crumbs) worked best.

Satisfied with the coating and cooking methods, we turned our attention to the stuffing. During our first round of testing, we had found "pocket-stuffed" breasts to be particularly troublesome. This method calls for slicing horizontally into the thickest part of the cutlet and sandwiching the filling into the middle. Because the filling is placed in the thickest part of the breast, its shape becomes even more uneven. In the oven, this unevenness causes the small tapered end to dry out long before the thicker portion is cooked. And, of course, when you cut into it, the tapered end is disappointingly devoid of filling. Pounding the breasts thin and rolling them up around the filling produced the most even distribution of filling and the most even cooking of the meat. It was also the only method that kept the filling from leaking out during cooking. Once cooked, the breasts could be sliced crosswise into medallions that looked lovely on the plate.

As for the content of the filling, we wanted something creamy but thick. Cheese was the obvious choice. After several tests, we concluded that beaten cream cheese provided the creamy consistency we wanted; it was thick and smooth. For flavor, we turned to more potent cheeses, such as cheddar and Gorgonzola, along with seasonings such as browned onions, garlic, and herbs.

But there was still a problem. These breasts had to be secured with toothpicks—sometimes multiple toothpicks in a single breast—all of which then had to be removed before the breast was sliced into medallions.

Getting over this hurdle turned out to be easier than we anticipated. We reasoned that chilling the stuffed breasts before cooking would inhibit the filling from melting so quickly and that the chilled cheese filling would hold the rolls together. We were right on both counts. Wrapping the breasts in plastic and refrigerating them for one hour before breading and cooking cooled the cheese enough to hold the roll together. It also kept the cheese from seeping out of the crust during baking. Another advantage of this technique is that it allows the cook to prepare the breasts up to this point and refrigerate them overnight.